Thus fared they the whole day betwixt fog and clear
weather, and they laid them down to rest at night
sore disheartened. When the day broke they talked
together as to what was best to do; and the sergeant
aforesaid spake: Lords, said he, meseemeth I
am more at home in the Black Valley than ye be; heed
ye not wherefore. Now so it is that if we tarry
here till night come we wot not what of evil may betide
us, or at the least we do nought. Or if we turn
back and go southward out of the dale we shall be
safe indeed; but safe should we have been at your
house, lords, and should have done no less. But
now I shall tell you that, if ye will, lords, I shall
guide you to a pass that goeth out of the head of
the dale to our right hands, and so turneth the flank
of the mountains, and cometh out into the country
which lieth about the Red Hold; and meseemeth it is
thitherward that we must seek if we would hear any
tidings of the lady; for there may we lay in ambush
and beset the ways that lead up to the Hold, by which
she must have been brought if she hath not been carried
through the air. How say ye, lords? Soothly
there is peril therein; yet meseemeth peril no more
than in our abiding another night in the Black Valley.
Said Arthur: We heed not the peril if there
be aught to be done; wherefore let us be stirring
straightway. And so said they all. Wherefore
they gat to horse, and rode up to the very head of
the valley, and the weather was now calm and bright.
But the sergeant brought them to the pass whereof
the stranger knight had spoken to Birdalone, which
led into the Red Knight’s country, and without
more ado they entered it when it was now about three
hours after noon. But the way was both steep
and rough, so that they had much toil, and went not
very far ere night fell upon them, and the moon was
not yet up. So when they had stumbled on another
two hours, and their horses were much spent and they
themselves not a little weary, they laid them down
to sleep, after they had eaten such meat as they had
with them, in a place where was a little grass for
the horses to bite; for all the road hitherto had
been mere grim stones and big rocks, walled on either
side by stony screes, above which rose steep and beetling
crags.
In the dawn they arose again, and made no ado till
they were in the saddle, and rode till they came to
the crest of the pass, and came out thence after a
while on to the swelling flank of a huge mountain
(as it might be the side of the mountain of Plinlimmon
in Wales), which was grassed and nought craggy, but
utterly treeless.
Now the sergeant led them somewhat athwart the said
mountain till they began to go down, and saw below
them a country of little hills much covered with wood,
and in a while, and ere it was noon, they were among
the said woods, which were grown mostly with big trees,
as oak here and beech there, and the going was good
for them.
